Love, Lives & Registrars

A recent TV drama showed that being a registrar can be a pretty exciting job. MAIREAD MAHON went to meet a registrar in Crewe

- Mairead Mahon

JULIE Hadfield has an enormous wardrobe that is packed full of wedding guest outfits: just as well, as she officiates at hundreds of weddings a year.

‘It’s true that I never need an excuse to buy an outfit or a pair of shoes but that is just one of the wonderful advantages of my job,’ explains Julie, Superintendent Registrar at Cheshire East.

Weddings in the county are on the rise, with last year’s figure of approximately 2000, already on course to be overtaken in 2018. ‘It’s not really surprising. As well as our lovely register office (on Earle Street in Crewe) Cheshire East has an amazing collection of venues - from castles to barns- and ever since we were cited in a national newspaper as the best team of registrars, we do find that couples will travel from all over England to be married here and they all have their own unique love story’, says Julie, a self-confessed romantic.

Julie, or a member of her team, always meets the couple in pre-wedding meeting.

‘This is where we usually get tears from the bride to be as she first sees the legal words written down. I think it’s because suddenly the gravity of the occasion becomes real. Actually, for that reason, I discourage couples from taking the words home to practise. They won’t have the same weight on the day if they’ve been practising them over the washing up,’ laughs Julie.